I am about to buy myself a new set of Carbon wheels to start off the year. Had already fixed my mind on Lun Hyper or Drive 50, but the feedback is, that they are a bit hard/harsch for long rides.
All Tests and research leads to the fates and most aero wheels but non of those takes ride comfort much into consideration. Only once might be DT Swiss ERC, but I would love to get rather something Chinese that is as good and cost 50% of the DT Swiss.
Best something around 50mm deep and optimized for 30mm tires (inner with +22mm and 105%rule)
Some companies are starting to bring polymer (rope spokes) into the road industry. This has been used for a fairly long time in the MTB industry and is starting to trickle into road.
The reason you see the feedback on the Hyper wheels can have a lot of variables, but if we are talking '23 and older its a rim profile and a tire that is not as bulbus or wider, its also a lot (and I mean a lot) to do with the carbon fiber spokes being extremely ridged.
Nextie is a Chinese company starting to push the polyfiber ti-fi spoke into the road industry. These spokes give comfort and vibration dampening into the wheelset.
Super interesting. Thank you very much! But cant find any wheelset that actually have those spokes mounted on their website. At Least not for Road Wheels. Do you know of any other company that might have some?
Can someone tell the comfort difference between two âwell-madeâ carbon rims that use the same dimensions and are matched to the same tire, air pressure, and spokes? I vote no.
I just bought the lun hyper3 67s. Ive ridden multiple 3 hour rides and I love them! With the wide internal width 28mm tires are great. I dont find them harsh.
Same â tire choice, tube/tubeless set-up and tire pressure are the biggest factors on ride comfort when it comes to contemporary carbon wheels.
Some additional aspects worth consideration are average speeds you usually ride (some carbon wheels perform better at higher speeds) and how well the wheels will perform in crosswinds â relative to your weight and how well they pair with your bike.
Wide tires with appropriate low pressures are the ticket. IMO, wheel stiffness might make some small diff in ride quality when running 23mm tires at 110 psi.
Iâve been using some light bicycle wr50 wheels for brevets up to 600km and theyâve been treating me well. I run 30/32mm gp5000 tires. Never had problems in the wind. I built them with 28 spoke dt350 hubs and triple butted spokes for durability.
If I did it again I would get a deeper rear rim, and buy rims without spoke holes to eliminate any potential tubeless tape issues; knock on wood I havenât had any.
Iâve got the '23 Winspace Hypers and they are indeed fairly harsh riding. I initially put 25mm GP5000s on them (same as I had before) and the ride was much harsher than my previous steel-spoked Fulcrum carbon wheels. I moved up to 28mm and the ride is now fine for me. But Iâm sure it would be a better ride if I had steel spokes. Essentially, I had to go from 25mm to 28mm to get a somewhat equivalent ride quality.
I know, wider still is better still. But itâs a rim brake and tire width is limited.
I think this may be a subjective thing. Not terribly different when discussing whether or not aero bikes are harsh riding. I do not find deep. Carbon wheels harsh at all. I have been on deep carbon wheels for many years of varying depths of 50 through 80mm in clincher, tubular and tubeless. I currently ride 58mm deep wheels and never hesitate to ride any distance on them. Many will not agree and I understand but deeper is generally faster and if I find the ride quality acceptable.
The shallower the rim the more spoke you have to âdampenâ. That said, any decent wheel with decent tire and pressure should work.
I think a lot of people interpret the 105% rule incorrectly, the OD of the rim needs to be 105% of the effective tire size (so 31.5mm for a true 30c tire). You could get a narrower front tire to get 105-100% paired with a bigger tire in the rear.
Iâm pretty happy with my ICANâs (I think they were $800 shipped)
Iâm a bit of a geek on this stuff, the standout value option right now are the Yoeleo Nxt DB Pro SL2. 50/50 with steel spokes around 1300g. You can get them for under $800 with 3 years warranty if you use various discount codes and sales periods. The steel spokes are a little more forgiving for longer rides, although tyre choice is more critical than wheel choice as others have stated.
If you want to spend more than $1000, Farsports, Wheelsfar, Magene, CRW all have impressive choices, the Farsports also offer steel spokes options. Hard to make a good case for any of them over the Yoeleos in terms of wise money.
Western brands not really offering anything competitive in the same price bracket. I used to have the Lun Hypers (2023 version) and indeed they were harsh compared to this new generation of wheels. Harsh and stiff are not really the same thing.
What exactly is meant by âcomfortâ of a wheel for a long ride? I have a few mates with lun and have very good things to say. I ended up getting some carbon mavic on eBay for cheap bc I know they are super durable, but would have got lun instead if they werenât similarly priced (mavic was quite discounted). If you care about comfort for a long ride, drop some money on carbon seat post and a seat with carbon rails. Unless youâre the âprincess and the peaâ, I donât think youâll feel much of a difference between one similarly reputable carbon wheelset to the other
Many riders donât actually care about the 105-rule anymore. After all, the rule is about two decades old: at that time the wheels were narrow and v-shaped, quite different from the modern wheels we have today.
Not sure if this is true - part of the reason wheels are getting wider is to accommodate wider tyres without sacrificing the aero. The 105 rule still stacks up. There was nothing stopping people running wide tyres on narrow rims, like everyone does in gravelâŚ
Continental has interesting data from their 111 tire.
The idea with the 105% is to not disturb the air too much and to keep the flow attached to whatever rim shape follows.
The idea with modern* blunt shaped wheels is that the front leading edge (tire) is the same shape as the leading edge of the rim (which is behind the fork leg) so that things stay balanced. TireFront&Rim-Rear is the mirror imagine of Rim-Front&Tire-Rear if that makes sense. I really wouldnât go off what a lot of people are doing therefore it must be good, Iâm open to the 105% being outdated but the convincing will have to backed by science vs â32câs feel more comfortable and I donât think Iâm slowerâ mindset.
